What's that, Spock? 'Logic?' If we listened to your cold reasoning, you'd have us look for that stupid Cosmic Keystone while innocent people suffer!

The McCoy is part of a Freudian Trio along with The Kirk and The Spock. Where the former is rational and intuitive, and the latter is cold and logical, the McCoy is emotional and humanistic. He cares about others deeply; for him doing the right thing is not a question of convenience or moral relativity, but about the concrete reality right now. Which is to say, someone like The Kirk cares about saving people; the McCoy cares about making things right. This often leads the heroes into hot water as this concern for others blinds him to complications in the Moral Dilemma of the week and leads him to advocate (or take it upon himself to do) "the right thing", regardless of how disastrous it would be in the short or long run.

The McCoy still functions as an admirable character, however, due to his absolute devotion to his Moral beliefs and his refusal to give in to what others may tell him. For him, there is no such thing as acceptable losses. And if you start claiming that numbers can be lost or that A Million Is a Statistic, you can expect a thorough chewing out for your coldness. In the McCoy's mind, every life matters and everyone deserves to be saved. While The Spock sees people as numbers in the greater picture, The McCoy sees people with real lives and emotions.

Kallen and Suzaku from Code Geass fill this role for their respective sides.

This personality archetype is, with a few exceptions in certain characters (namely Usopp and Robin, and then only occasionally for either), a prerequisite for joining the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece. It also seems to be the default personality for the majority of the characters aligned with good, period.

In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sayaka and Madoka are the McCoys to Homura and Kyuubey's Spocks. In this way, it almost seems to Take a Third Option when it comes to the Emotions vs. Stoicism debate: Sayaka lives by her emotions and ends up paying for it in every possible universe becoming a Witch in the main timeline, Madoka ends up rewriting the universe into a happier place through the Power of Love, Homura is by far the most competent Magical Girl outside Madoka and none of the latter's achievements would have been possible without her and vice versa if her Back Story is any indication, while Kyuubey has an arguable point in the goal he's working towards, but does so in an inarguably cruel and heartless way. In other words? Neither is specifically better than the other, and in fact both may be necessary, depending on the situation.

Umi Ryuuzaki in Magic Knight Rayearth takes this role. It's not enough for her to defeat Ascot—he has to apologize and take responsibility for his monster friends, dammit! And when he does, she smiles and encourages him to make a complete Heel-Face Turn, resulting in him developing a huge crush on her.

"McCoy in a way represents for us, or represented for us, the extremes of Kirk and Spock. If Spock is extreme logic, ... extreme science, and Kirk is extreme emotion and intuition, here you have a very colorful doctor, essentially a very humanistic scientist. So he, in a way, is literally and figuratively a representation of two extremes that often served as the glue that held thetrio together."

Though it comes off in a very similar manner to the show, and is very well played.

Mr White of Reservoir Dogs, in comparison to the cold and logical Mr Pink and the psychopathic Mr Blonde. He tells the dying Mr Orange his name and defends him all through the movie from accusations that Orange is a rat, based purely on the fact that he likes the guy.

The Avengers: Iron Man fits The Kirk, and Captain America fits The McCoy. Given that Thor is calculative and likes control, and that Banner (when he's not Hulk) is calm and logical, either one could be The Spock.

In the Harry Potter books, Harry, Ron and Hermione start out as The Kirk, The McCoy and The Spock respectively. Throughout the course of the novels, they all grow out of and beyond these labels, often switching around (Hermione's dedication to house-elf liberty is very McCoy-ish, for example) or not quite fitting any of them.

Ned Land from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is an emotional harpooner who isn't excited about going around the world on the Nautilus and simply wants to return to civilization, in contrast to Aronnax's Kirk and Conseil's Spock.

Harry also acts as this at times, most prominently in Grave Peril (where he absolutely refuses to abandon his girlfriend even knowing that it could mean an all out war with the Red Court, and it does indeed cause a war that nearly gets his own side wiped out), and Changes (where he goes against pretty much every piece of advice he'd previously given himself or others for the sake of rescuing a daughter he hadn't even known existed until a day before).

However, it should be noted that this mindset is heavily deconstructed in all of those examples; Titania's "wisdom of the heart" makes her unhelpful even when all of reality (including her own domain) is at stake if Harry fails, and Harry's actions have truly disastrous repercussions for the world and the people he cares about (predictably for The McCoy, the latter hits him much harder than the former).

Animorphs: Cassie tends to be this. At an early point of the story, she goes into 10-Minute Retirement because she needlessly killed an enemy Mook, even though defecting means indirectly endangering the human kind itself.

Beatrice Löwenström, the female protagonist in Överenskommelser by Simona Ahrnstedt, very much fits into this trope. Her willingness to sacrifice herself for her friends actually boarders on pure stupidity.

Live-Action TV

The trope is named forDoctor Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy. He not only stressed humanism, he was all but dominated by his emotions, to the point that he seemed to find no value in logic whatsoever, even in situations where it would fit... um, logically. There are many Star Trek: The Original Series episodes wherein, had they listened to the Doctor instead of Spock, the Enterprise would be a cloud of space dust. One of the novels implied that he was partly this as a semi-deliberate counterbalance to Spock — in one take on the Yesteryear timeline, where Spock did not exist and the first officer was the Andorian Thellin (Andorians being stereotypically passionate), the good doctor was a great deal more logical and rationalistic in his outlook.

There's a clear ideological bent this way in Starfleet medical school in general — an inclination to take "first do no harm" as far as the Prime Directive allows it; this may be because subsequent series are a Generation Xerox of the first. (Starfleet members from the American South are also frequently like this.) Examples include Dr. Crusher, who quite often would ignore rational ordeals and run into the battleground to try and save someone, and the more obnoxious Dr. Pulaski, McCoy's Distaff Counterpart. They definitely take an oath like the Hippocratic one, perhaps a modern modification of the oath like this one, or perhaps something unique to the Federation.

Deep Space Nine had Kira Nerys, while Odo was usually the more logical one.

Voyager used Captain Janeway in this role, while Tuvok and Chakotay would try to balance her out with logic. Tom Paris also had his McCoy moments.

Jack O'Neill in Stargate SG-1 was more often than not the McCoy in addition to The Kirk; playing a foil to the more rational Samantha and Daniel (Teal'c had his McCoy moments as well). He'd sometimes choose to help others, or incessantly bug Sam and Daniel to explain to him why they shouldn't help others.

Daniel himself is more often the McCoy, especially when he feels the current situation is SG-1's fault. O'Neill was more often the calm, rational military leader and Daniel has to convince everyone else on what was right.

Both Jack and Daniel could turn into McCoys. They'd often get into arguments, not about whether to help, but HOW to help. A prime example: in "Scorched Earth", an alien wants to terraform a planet so his civilization can be rebuilt there. The terraforming would kill the population already living there. Daniel wants to talk to the alien and reach a compromise. Jack wants to blow them up.

While Teal'c is usually the Spock, he has had his time as the McCoy, usually when someone does something sends him on a Roaring Rampageof Revenge. There was an entire episode dedicated to such an event.

Lost in Space had its own Freudian Trio with Will Robinson, the Robot and Doctor Smith. Ironically, the most logical of them all, the Robot, would frequently prove his great titanium alloy heart by performing a Heroic Sacrifice for the crew.

Although Doctor Smith was closer to The Spock with his self-serving interests, he had quite a few Pet the Dog moments of humanistic behaviour himself.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Xander alternated — and often tag-teamed — as the McCoys of the Scoobie Gang, wanting to do what they thought was right, no matter how stupid or reckless it was, and occasionally put Giles down for trying to stay rational in emotional situations, calling him heartless.

When Willow was kidnapped, the Scoobies (especially Oz) were the McCoy, Giles was The Kirk and Wesley was The Spock.

Buffy herself was the McCoy more than anyone else, often thinking with her heart rather than her head, such as her reluctance to kill Angel in season 2, endangering the world as a result, her refusal to kill Dawn in season 5, endangering the world as a result, her refusal to kill Spike in season 7, endangering the world as a result... Sensing a theme here?

Doctor Who has a tradition of this, when the companions usually act as the heart and the moral compass for the often aloof and alien Doctor. Barbara was the first companion to somewhat "humanise" the unpredictable and sometimes callous First Doctor. In the new series, Donna lived and breathed this trope, especially as the Tenth Doctor's characterisation grew darker and darker.

Ironically, Jack McCoy of Law & Order is not the McCoy for the show. That role is typically filled by the female A.D.A., except when Angie Harmon played that role as a conservative Republican, so they made the new D.A. a female college professor, and made her the McCoy. Of course, some can take it too far: Serena Southerlyn was too much the McCoy, which resulted in her being fired. This also led to an example of Suddenly Sexuality.

Delenn in Babylon 5 is definitely a McCoy with her romantic and mystical outlook and her often spectacular displays of Honor Before Reason. B5 doesn't really have The Spock to balance her. Sheridan is a Kirk and Franklin, who is The Spock or something close, doesn't interact with Delenn enough to balance her. As B5 is something of a romanticist work, that is reasonable.

Power Rangers. In general, all the colors are this, although Reds tend to be the most McCoy-ish. (Cole, Casey, and Conner all get special mentions, though really any rookie Red counts.)

Zhaan, Chiana, and to a lesser degree Jool served as McCoys most often on Farscape. John did as well sometimes (especially in the first season), although he became more The Kirk as the series went along. Aeryn and D'Argo were usually Kirks, but on occasion they delved into McCoy territory, usually when it came to their loved ones (John, Pilot, and to a certain extent her mother for Aeryn, Jothee and Chiana for D'Argo).

"Doc" Soto in Alcatraz seems to be slipping into this role in opposition to Hauser's Spock.

Both Harm and Mac in JAG, but most especially Harm, typically functioned as the McCoy of the series.

Mac [to Harm]:Look, you run on emotion. It's what makes you a good lawyer!

Horatio Hornblower: Archie Kennedy is the show's heart and soul, especially in "Mutiny" and "Retribution". He's very humanistic and always wants to do what is right and just. Archie is the first one who speaks about Captain Sawyer's incompetence, his unjust abuse of Midshipman Wellard horrifies him and is generally dissatisfied with the lack of discipline on the Renown. note The three lieutenants together form a nice Freudian Trio: Archie is the id (emotional, intuitive and quicker to act), Horatio is the ego (heroic, mediates between the two, rationally evaluates the situation but hesitates to act) and Mr Bush is the superego (logical, calm, rational, and slower to act).

Abby from The 100 has an intense desire to save everyone, but unlike her more pragmatic daughter, will usually refuse to accept any solution that involves killing others or allowing them to die, insisting there must be a way to Take a Third Option. This is apparently a new development for her, as prior to the start of the series she was willing to execute her own husband because she felt he was a danger to the Ark's stability. It's suggested her subsequent refusal to accept death may be an attempt to atone for that act.

Roleplay

Fittingly, several doctors fill this role in Dino Attack RPG. Dr. Alan Pierce is arguably the most notable, with Wade, Carver, and Shaw behind him. Crusher, Copper, and Hale are more practical, and Medic is... well... Medic.

Theatre

In 1776, John Adams is a McCoy protagonist, incredibly passionate about American independence. He starts a stick-fight with Dickinson at one point and nearly jeopardizes the entire vote over the anti-slavery clause, but he's an absolute Determinator about wanting freedom from England and rights for all citizens.

Garrus Vakarian of the Mass Effect series evolves into this over the course of Mass Effect 1 & 2. By the second game, he forms a team of Cowboy cops to combat the corruption on the station in Omega. True to the "Get into hot water" portion, his whole squad ends up massacred.

Starting in Mass Effect 2, Joker ends up pairing off as The McCoy to EDI'sThe Spock, appropriate as EDI is a Artificial Intelligence. Jacob and Miranda have a similar dynamic as the two senior Cerberus officers aboard in ME2, along with Tali and Legion. Bioware seems to enjoy this character dynamic.

Merrick from Dawn of War Retribution objects violently to the notion that he and his men are cannon fodder. After an incident that ends with thousands of soldiers dying in a cataclysm, he attacks his commanding officer, and has the balls to tell him off whilst a commissar holds a gun to his head, itching to pull the trigger.

Tidus practically embodies this trope in Final Fantasy X, frequently throwing all respect for the alien culture he finds himself washed up in to the winds in order to do what he perceives as the right thing, particularly when it involves stopping people from dying.

Conrad from Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name is not a very humanitarian/sentimentalist example, but he is the only part of the main triad (himself, Hanna and Zombie) that is freaked out by the general supernatural weirdness of the comic. He's pretty much a staple Only Sane Man who questions everyone else's logic and peculiar calmness in the face of things that should scare the crap out of normal people like him.

Arcturus Winrock from Suicide for Hire pulled a HUGE McCoy on Hunter when he killed a cancer patient.

In Harkovast Scatterpod plays the McCoy to Quinn-Tain's Spock over the morality of Quinn-Tain killing BrightLeaf.

Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. She once detained the group for three days by essentially poisoning Appa (well, she just fed him berries to turn his tongue purple, but she had no idea whether he could safely eat them) to help a village who lived on a polluted river, even destroying the factory that polluted it, in spite of being on a tight schedule.

Sam in Danny Phantom forces Vegan meals and steals frogs from being dissected in her school, displays her disguise on a Beauty Contest to bring individuality to the girls, and other humanitarian beliefs she has up her sleeves. When she's not doing that, then she makes sure Danny is going the right path.

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